Games the Authors would be proud of... your thoughts?

TwistedSister77

Living, or deceased, we know great authors (or their estates) give liscences to games.  So many terrible games have been made to make a buck, but what about the gems?

Ok obvious ones I feel:  

- Lord of the Rings Online.  Such a huge RP culture and held to a bunch of source material (including the Gollum slip, compared to the Peter Jackson movie Frodo vs Gollum fight scene... which they couldn't use anyway because they had no rights... but still).  In the end, I think Tolkien would appreciate the players who bonded. (Ps there have been about 15 + games based on LoTR, but I think this is the standout).

- Age of Conan:  bash the launch, but even to this day this game from 2008 is beautiful.  More importantly, so much lore.  As far as the brutal nature of PVP servers (and complaints)... I think REH himself would particularly have a smile and a steely blue twinkle in his eye about that.   Conan was savage.   I played at launch and for  3-4 years on a RP PvP server... awesome (then servers consolidated).  Alliances (because sieges happen on your guild city) and RP, and open PVP... plus solid PVE (which sustains it now).  

Those are my starters... can be mmorpgs or single player games.

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Amathe

The Witcher.

Vrika

Amathe said:

The Witcher.

From what I heard, Witcher's author hates the games.

I think whether the author likes games depends more on the author than the game.

LackingMMO

Vrika said:

Amathe said:

The Witcher.

From what I heard, Witcher's author hates the games.

I think whether the author likes games depends more on the author than the game.

Its not that he hates the games, he hates and looks down on games in general. He should be proud of them but will never gives them credit because of his views of games period.

Ungood

Dungeons and Dragons Online.

Both Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson have narrated Dungeons in DDO, they have Shrines to their Honor in their respective content, and items unique to their legacy.

So it would safe to say, that DDO has their seal of approval.

Iselin

Mike Pondsmith seems very pleased with Cyberpunk 2077. He did the original table top game and also worked closely with CDPR on the game.

https://www.nme.com/en_asia/gaming-features/cyberpunk-2077-co-creator-mike-pondsmith-cyberpunk-is-a-warning-not-an-aspiration-2835009

https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/1371411/cyberpunk-2077-creator-mike-pondsmith-cd-projekt-red-cdpr-ps4-xbox-ps5-series-x

https://www.wired.com/story/cyberpunk-mike-pondsmith-interview/

AlBQuirky

Amathe said:

The Witcher.

The Witcher popped into my head, but I had heard various "stories" about the author's ideas about games. Didn't he sue CD-PR about the games?

Iselin

AlBQuirky said:

Amathe said:

The Witcher.

The Witcher popped into my head, but I had heard various "stories" about the author's ideas about games. Didn't he sue CD-PR about the games?

Yeah bad example. There was bad blood between the author and studio for years and it wasn't just because of the shit deal he made for himself when he decided to take cash up front and screw the royalties because he had no faith in the (then) fledgling indie studio.

He was very critical about how the game was not faithful to his books at all. Having watched the first season of the Netflix series which s based on his books and not the game, I have a hard time seeing that as valid criticism.

Po_gg

Interesting idea... especially since two of my favourite games are LotRO and AoC

Let's see, AoC is easier, Howard was pretty close to what you could call a nerd in his times, and Funcom did a good job on the lore, not to mention he mostly told episodes from all around Conan's life (and Kull too, since AoC reaches back partly to that as well) - with all that I'm sure he'd love to wander in AoC.

LotRO is a tougher nut to crack... the writers did a pretty good job to remain faithful to Tolkien's works, the world building is amazing, so that part I believe Tolkien would like: to enjoy the vistas and walk around the different parts, maybe some of the better mission chains he'd like too. Maybe the community on the RP servers, and their events.

But the game itself, with players everywhere with silly character names doing stupid things... probably not. Not in his character, and he didn't build Middle-earth for a base of a game anyway.

But since the question was "would be proud of", maybe he would, on certain parts, as a medium for connecting like-minded people, people who love his works.

As a linguist he'd certainly be proud how LotRO connects people to learn and use his languages, be it a roleplay event where players present their own poems on sindarin, or a series of khuzdul learning sessions - though it ain't his own language, he just put down the cornerstones of it (was built up later for the PJ movies)

As a professor he'd be proud of the online courses within LotRO, whether the Tolkien Prof's sessions about Middle-earth and Silmarillion, or Prof. Clayton's literature and narrative course in the past, using the game and Tolkien's work together.

Amaranthar

Ultima Online, if you consider Garriott as an author with the SP games and the storyline. 
Of course, he made the MMO too, so there's that. 

Ungood

remsleep said:

Any game that makes author money via royalty payments 

Nahh.. just because you make money on royalties, does not mean you are proud of what was done.

Many creative talents have stepped away from Movie, TV, and Video Game creations based off their work, because they were not happy with how it was done, even if they still made bank off it.

Sovrath

Xodic said:

Blade Runner, from book (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), to loose interpretations of movies and video games. The 1990's game was breathtaking for its time, which is a dark and gritty futuristic detective game with a solid storyline. It's still one of my favorites. It was truly a game that pushed the limits and innovated game design.  It's also one of the first video games to use voxels, which I didn't even know until I watched this video.

hmmmm maybe I should get this. You can get it on Good Ol' Games. Though the video must have been made a bit ago because it says otherwise.

Akulas

Games are usually more catered to gamers as opposed to authors. Like Jack one of the original Warner Brothers would flip out if they saw something like Lego Batman whereas someone like Gary Gygax (D&D) Andrew Gower (Runescape) are okish enough for them to be involved within the game somehow if the price is right. (I would too if there was a discovery of secret bacon through pig wresting) where others like LOTRO which is a pretty good online game doesn't do the original books justice even if it does to the movies etc. So, it could be the best written dialogue and the author could be in game somehow and the author could still think it's not good even if players do. Maybe WoW because their stories are good and have the "intended purpose" at the time. But maybe D&D is a pretty good example of a game author should like.

Sovrath

Xodic said:

Sovrath said:

hmmmm maybe I should get this. You can get it on Good Ol' Games. Though the video must have been made a bit ago because it says otherwise.

I looked on the GOG forums, and apparently an enhanced edition is being released.

"According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, the remastered version is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC."

• The original code for the game was lost.
• Nightdive Studios is remastering it for current-generation machines by reverse-engineering the code.
• Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition should release in 2020.

Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition updates the 1997 classic, coming in 2020 | Windows Central

Probably best to wait.

Great find. If they are going to release it for 2020 then they better move their butts!

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Po_gg

Sovrath said:

hmmmm maybe I should get this. You can get it on Good Ol' Games. Though the video must have been made a bit ago because it says otherwise.

Not much before, looks like it's from 2018, and GOG announced its resurrection a year later. As I wrote at that time ( https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/comment/7554288#Comment_7554288 ) it really was a big deal, the game was practially lost for more than 10 years, after abandonware sites were faded out.

I remember the issues after I've found a working version for that mentioned friend, he had to dig out a key and roll back onto XP for it since that was the latest Windows version that could run it, the compatibility mode of Win7 (and above, it was around 2010 already) just threw in the towel...

And that's why the re-release of it was such a huge thing. Besides the lost source code and the licensing issues, the fact that the GOG team made it easily install and run on 32/64bit as well was the icing on the proverbial cake.

(sidenote, just like last year when that post was made, there is an ongoing winter sale on GOG again, and Blade Runner is on discount )

TwistedSister77

Great, discussion.  I really haven't played any of the Harry Potter games... thoughts?

immoralthang

Lots of great examples here. On the opposite end I can’t imagine HP Lovecraft would enjoy any of the games based on his works. Not because it may or may not be faithful to the source material but because he was a horrible racist that would be shocked at the thought of non-white people using his stories. 

Ungood

immoralthang said:

Lots of great examples here. On the opposite end I can’t imagine HP Lovecraft would enjoy any of the games based on his works. Not because it may or may not be faithful to the source material but because he was a horrible racist that would be shocked at the thought of non-white people using his stories. 

He also was born in 1890, spent the prime years of his short life dealing with ravages of WWI and The Spanish Flu, and died in 1937, which was before the Rise of Nazi Germany and WWII. He live a grand total of 47 years, during a time when a lot of society as a whole was racist, if he had been born in 1990, I am sure he would have had a different view on things.

TwistedSister77

I know this is a bit different, but I think the creators of Southpark would be pleased by Southpark The Stick of Truth rpg. 

I haven't put too many hours in yet, but the game feels like you're in an actual Southpark episode.  Really enjoying the experience.

Po_gg

TwistedSister77 said:

I know this is a bit different, but I think the creators of Southpark would be pleased by Southpark The Stick of Truth rpg.

Naturally they do... 

Stone and Parker were in the development, they came up with the idea, and the game is a kinda "extension" of a South Park episode, which was mocking PJ's LoTR movies

Which reminds me of maybe the most fitting candidate, Harlan Ellison, and the game I have no mouth, and I must scream (from his short novel of the same title).

A really weird (no surprise, considering the source material) but still really good and interesting game, and Ellison was part of the development, the writing -since it "extends" the novel, just like Stick of Truth above-, and even gave the voice of AM.

He said later he really enjoyed the experience and like how the game counterparts the novel.

(which is true, but also makes it a really difficult play... especially if the player doesn't know the novel. Probably that's why it was a flop, money-wise... at that time it was highly unconventional from a point'n'click adventure game to be a depressive, nightmare-like experience, with no resolve at the end - Ellison specifically wanted (as being loyal to the novel) a game which you can't win. So there are multiple endings, all bad, and the "good" ending is just the least bad...   )

Scot

Ungood said:

immoralthang said:

Lots of great examples here. On the opposite end I can’t imagine HP Lovecraft would enjoy any of the games based on his works. Not because it may or may not be faithful to the source material but because he was a horrible racist that would be shocked at the thought of non-white people using his stories. 

He also was born in 1890, spent the prime years of his short life dealing with ravages of WWI and The Spanish Flu, and died in 1937, which was before the Rise of Nazi Germany and WWII. He live a grand total of 47 years, during a time when a lot of society as a whole was racist, if he had been born in 1990, I am sure he would have had a different view on things.

I find it baffling that people today have an insistence that people from the past share all of their ideals and values. Rather than celebrating that this shows how far we have come, they denigrate the achievements of every historical figure who expressed or was associated with something unacceptable today. We are all people of our time, it should not surprise anyone that this is the case.

rensta

The first Rayman popped into my head immediately. Awesome game for kids. 

Scot

Just to say this is a great topic, adventurers helmet doffed to the OP for thinking of it.

Most authors have issues with seeing their work in another medium, that it is natural enough. Games also tend to start a lot closer to the author vision for a first release (or launch in the case of a MMO) than they do down the line.

Lotro's Lorekeeeper was very aptly named, that class kept "mages" in synch with the lore, they were throwing powders as spells! As Picard mentioned the Runekeeper was like every player being able to play Gandalf, a Super Gandalf at that.

The Witcher's author only seemed to like the games when he felt he had got enough money for them which was early on and much later when they gave him a royalty bung.

Unless the author writes the games script and is the Creative Director (not sure any are even qualified to do that?) , they are never going to be totally happy with the game version, if it was your baby would you be?

Po_gg

Scot said:

Unless the author writes the games script and is the Creative Director (not sure any are even qualified to do that?)

Just scroll a few posts up  

Ellison wrote the dialogues, the character's backstories, all the details which were above the original novel. He voiced the central figure, and added design and narrative ideas to the process.

True, wasn't the creative director per se... as an old writer without any knowledge on computers and games it ain't surprising. In this sense your question is valid, probably no writers were in that position yet, since they have expertise elsewhere.

From the other way around it's easier, like Ragnar Tornquist. He ain't a writer in the meaning of published books, etc., yet he's the writer and director of the Dreamfall series, just as TSW, also the writer of AO (the lead designer of that was Godager).

Have an another example for the title's proudness question, even if stretching the word author a bit: Nomad Soul, and Bowie.

The first (and also the last) good game of Cage before he turned into selling QTE-heavy interactive movies as games...  (ok, self-admitted Cage hater here )

He asked Bowie for the game's OST, and he got fully turned on for the project. Bowie really liked to experiment and do new things anyway, and gaming started to explode at that time.

Long story short he didn't just do the OST but ended up as a key character in the game (voiced by him, and built on his image), did some writing part, and even enlisted his wife into the game as a minor character.